“Your master beat sheet is awesome, do you think you could make a scrivener template for it, similar to the basic beat sheet template you made?”

I already have Scrivener templates to go with my Basic Beat Sheet and my Romance Beat Sheet, but I’ve gotten several requests to make Scrivener templates for my other beat sheets as well. (And I love when my readers give me ideas for posts!)

So if you’re an author who loves having the story direction of my Master Beat Sheet and use Scrivener for drafting your stories, today’s post is for you…

Not Sure What Scrivener Is?

Many writers use Scrivener (Windows and Mac) because they sponsor NaNoWriMo and offer a discount to participants. But more importantly, writers like Scrivener for its organizational features. We can lay out our scenes with virtual index cards, capture our research information, and create character sheets, all in one program.

Honestly, I use about 1% of Scrivener’s capabilities. I don’t bother putting my research or notes into the program as I draft (I currently use MS OneNote for most of that). And my pantsing ways means that I don’t do a lot of planning—much less plotting—ahead of time.

(Yet I’m also a source of beat sheets popular with plotters. Go figure.)

However, I still love drafting within Scrivener because its many features and views give me a visual way of tracking the scenes for my point-of-view characters. Here’s a snippet from my current WIP:

Along the left side of the Scrivener program (under Binder), I can see who owns each scene and make sure that my hero (blue) or heroine (pink) aren’t getting too many scenes in a row. (Note: Newsletter readers, click through to the post to see all of today’s images.)

Tracking Word Count: Beat Sheets vs. Scrivener

Many writers don’t like dealing with math. *raises hand* The beat sheets on my site all have “auto-math.” We fill in the estimated word count of our story and all the word counts of the beats—the story events—will automatically populate. Yay! No math.

However, Scrivener doesn’t have a function for calculating how many words each section should contain based on assigned percentages of the total word count. That means any target word counts in Scrivener have to be calculated and entered manually. Ugh, I know.

Even as a pantser who doesn’t fill out beat sheets ahead of time, I still like keeping an eye my word count while I draft so I stay on track. Sometimes when I’ve been stuck on what to write next, I’ve discovered my muse wasn’t giving me any ideas because it was time to do the scene for the next beat. Oops.

As Scrivener users, we have two options for tracking our progress compared to the target word count for each beat:

If we write linearly (drafting scenes in order of the final story), we can fill in our expected word count in our beat sheet in MS Excel and keep an eye on our overall word count in the Scrivener Project Targets word count window (in the Windows version, this is under the Projects menu).Every so often, we could simply compare that number under Manuscript Target (where the example above says 81) to the word counts on our beat sheet and call ourselves done.

If we don’t write linearly (or if we don’t want to bounce between programs), we need a way to keep track of our word count in each section of the story because our overall word count is scattered among scenes and won’t match up with our beats. Within Scrivener, we can track the total word count of scenes assigned to each beat, but fair warning: It requires math. *grin*

The Master Scrivener Template for the Master Beat Sheet

The Master Beat Sheet is a mishmash of beats from two different story structure systems. However, because what stories need in order to feel like a story don’t change, many of those beats are compatible and overlap.

That said, there are too many beats on the Master Beat Sheet that don’t line up perfectly to include each one as a separate folder in Scrivener. Instead, I focused on the major common beats and included notes about what should be included in each section:

Introduction/Inciting Incident

End of Act One

Pinch Point #1

Midpoint

Pinch Point #2

Black Moment

Finale

Resolution/End

(Click on the image to view larger size.)

If you click on the image, you’ll see those same beats represented by folders on the left side of the screen. I tuck each new scene into the appropriate folder as I draft. That simple step helps me see how many scenes I have leading up to each beat, as well as the total word count for all of those scenes.

(Note #2: I built this template off of the NaNoWriMo template, so it still includes the character and setting sketch templates, even though I don’t use them. Also, this template is already set up to use the Label field to flag for point of view (POV)), which might be useful for romance authors or other multiple-POV authors, as shown in my WIP above. Others might want to change that field to setting, main plot vs. subplot, scene type, etc.)

Now for the math part…

Step One: Customize a Beat Sheet for Our Word Count

For my genre, a typical word count is 80-100K words. I set up my beat sheet and my Scrivener template for 85K because I always go over, so I figure it’s best to aim for the low end when I draft.

If a word count of 85K works for you and your stories, my template will work as-is and you can skip to Step Four. No math! *grin*

If you need to adjust the word count, however, keep reading. I set the word count by following these instructions, so you can adjust the template the same way.

If I open the Master Beat Sheet and change the Word Count in the header section to 85,000, the results would look like this:

Step Two: Calculate the # of Words for each Beat’s Section

Notice the numbers for each beat on the far right under Word Count above. The word count for the first folder—Introduction/Inciting Incident—is easy, 16788 words. After that, we have to figure out the difference in word count between each beat and the one before it.

For example, the second folder—To End of Act I—is 21250 minus 16788, or 4462 words. Pinch Point #1 would be 31875 minus 21250, or 10625 words, and so on.

Step Three: Enter the Target # of Words for each Section

Once we have the numbers for how our total word count breaks down into each beat’s “section,” we can input that information into Scrivener.

Double click on the numbers under Target to update for your Step Two word counts.

Also, under View—>Outliner Columns, we can select what information we want to see here. In this template, I have Title (the beat/folder name), Synopsis (what’s supposed to happen in that beat), Total Word Count (this is the actual word count for all scenes added to that folder), and Target (these are the numbers we calculated in Step Two), as well as POV and Status, all displaying as columns.

(Note #1: If you’re not familiar with this view in Scrivener, you click on “Manuscript” on the top left (under Binder) and then on Outliner view (the right-most middle button at the top, yellow in this image).)

(Note #2: If you look at the beat sheet image under Step One, you can see why I couldn’t include every beat as a separate folder in Scrivener. There are five beats that occur within the first few scenes. One scene in Scrivener could be the Opening Image, Opening Scene, Theme Stated, Hook Moment, Set-up, and Inciting Incident. As Scrivener can’t be organized to insert a single scene into multiple folders, I instead created a few big-picture folders and listed the elements that should appear in the scenes of that section. See image above for the “Include the following elements in these scenes” descriptions.)

Step Four: Do Not Freak Out while Drafting!

Now while we’re drafting, we can keep on eye on our progress. However, this does not mean we should panic if our actual word counts under Total Word Count don’t match. *smile*

We already have enough other things to worry about while we’re drafting. We don’t need to add tracking every single over or under word count to that list.

The word counts of beat sheets are guidelines. Story flow is more important than sticking to these numbers. The main purpose behind beat sheets is to ensure a story arc unfolds with good pacing. The specific numbers don’t matter if the pace is strong.

We might discover better beats while we’re drafting. This happens to me all the time. I think plot event A is going to be the Pinch Point, but it happens too early. Instead, when I look at what’s going on around the target word count, I discover another event that works just fine as a Pinch Point. Problem solved.

We might end up with a manuscript word count nowhere near our expected word count. As I mentioned, I plan for 85K words, but I often end up with a first draft closer to 105K.

For example, here’s how those actual vs. target numbers might look during my first draft:

Once I’ve completed my first draft, I’ll update the Beat Sheet for that real total Word Count number. Then I can look at the scenes near those updated word count numbers for each beat and decide if I have a pacing problem or not.

Rather than worrying about specific word counts while drafting, think of these folders and numbers simply as organizational tools. They remind me to avoid tangents, and they keep me from trying to brainstorm another scene when I really should be working on the next beat. The word counts are just an overview for me.

Interested in this Master Beat Sheet Scrivener Template?

(Note: I have Scrivener for Windows. From what I’ve heard, this template might work on the Mac version. If anyone can confirm Mac compatibility in the comments, I’d appreciate it. Or if a Mac conversion can be done, I can link it here.)

Scrivener template files can’t simply be “opened”—the zip file must first be extracted and then you have to import the template file into Scrivener. Don’t worry, follow these instructions exactly, and this template should work for you. *smile*

Do you use Scrivener? If so, do you track word count beat-sheet style? Do you use a Scrivener template? If so, which one and why? If you’re an over-achieving beat sheet user, will this new template be helpful for you? Or do you have a request for a different tool?

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Oh my gosh, thank you!!! This is the best gift for today! By the way, I have Mac and the latest Scrivener (3) and it was easy-peasy to import this template. Again, thank you! Wish I could give something back!

Hi, Jen! I love Jami’s templates too, and I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t import it. I’m not sure which version of OS you have or which version of Scrivener, but here’s some directions for High Sierra OS, Scrivener 3:
After downloading Jami’s file, I unzipped it by clicking twice on it. I left it in my Download folder, by the way. Then, once unzipped, I went to my Scrivener Opening Screen and clicked Options, the down arrow. I clicked on “Import Templates” and then selected Jami’s unzipped file. And it worked.
If that doesn’t work for you, the other option that works for me is after unzipping the file, I open it in Scrivener. Then I click on File, and find the “Save as Template” button and click on that. It asks you where you want to save it and under what name, so it’s easy to find. Then I close out of that, and, usually, it’s right there, mixed in with my other fiction templates.
I hope this helps! 🙂

I don’t know about the Mac version like Red does, but make sure the file is unzipped, and then try importing it first, rather than opening it. That’s what works for the Windows version anyway, and Red said that was her first step. Thanks and good luck! 🙂

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6 months ago

Kristi

Thanks for the response! Unfortunately, I’ve been getting an error message that Scrivener can’t open Scrivener Template files.

And nevermind … it worked! Sorry about the confusion! Thanks for the template!

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6 months ago

JHS

Don’t try to open a Scrivener Template. IMPORT a Scrivener template. This is done in the New Project panel. The button is in the lower left hand corner of the panel.

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4 months ago

Laura L

LOVED this post!!! And I totally need it right now.. I have/use Scrivener, but I just kinda pantsed my story into some kinda shape. I mean, I have about 40K words, and I know the general direction of the big stuff, I just need a guidepost to direct me down the lane to finished-dom… =]

Awesome! I didn’t know you had Scrivener templates! (Probably because I’ve been so frustrated trying to learn the basics of Scrivener for PC I gave up and didn’t bother looking for anything additional.) 😉

I’ve owned Scrivener for PC for years and have spent a grand total of about 4 hours trying to learn it (and getting frustrated) at different times before going back to MS Word to meet a deadline, haha. Since I am currently in the midst of upgrading/switching from PC to iMac and about to start a new novel project, I decided now would be a great time to get the Scrivener app for my iMac, since everything is “new” anyway, and dive in to *really* learning it this time. I’m excited to utilize your always-fantabulous tools!

Thanks so much for all you do to help authors, Jami!

Serena

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1 year ago

Yasmin

Hello! This are great resources and information, but I’m unable to open in my Scrivener for Mac. Has anyone been able to do so?

How to open the Scrivener Template should be placed on your article “worksheets for writers”. I took a while to figure out that the instructions were located in this article and I couldn’t open it directly by downloading. I do, however, thank you for creating this and offering so much information to writers like me.

There’s not really a good place on the Worksheets page to put the Scrivener instructions, but you’re right that the fact that special instructions were needed should be made clearer. I updated the page to put that note and link right under each Scrivener template download link. Thanks for the idea! 🙂

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1 month ago

Joyce

Thank you for taking the time to organize this fabulous Scrivener template! I’m on a mac and it worked perfectly! A very smooth process, thanks to your step-by-step directions. 🙂